Carers on benefits have now become financially vulnerable too

THE ageing population is causing some of the biggest social problems we have had to confront in decades. Even so, it is absolutely shocking to discover that the six million men and women who selflessly care for the sick and the elderly are suffering from serious financial hardship as a direct result of their actions.

PUBLISHED: 00:04, Tue, Feb 4, 2014

Carers are saving the state around £119billion by looking after their ageing loved ones in need [POSED BY MODELS/GETTY]

How can this be right? These people are performing a crucial social service and saving the state a great deal of money into the bargain – a total of £119billion.

It is absolutely iniquitous that they should be made to suffer further because they are looking after the most vulnerable people in our midst.

The Daily Express is no fan of unnecessary state handouts but against this background it is quite wrong to cut support services – the money saved, a comparatively paltry £1billion, could be found elsewhere.

The foreign aid budget would be a start. As it is, we are in the obscene position of giving money to India, which has its own space programme while denying help to the people in our own country who need it most.

Being a carer is one of the most difficult roles that anyone can fulfil and to penalise these decent folk is outrageous.

A society deserves to be judged not just on how it treats its elderly but those who look after them. We are falling a fair way short.